City without a bookstore

[depakid]

The bookstore was Zhuara Rivera's magical "Neverland." It offered a fairy tale world for 14-year-old Rivera to get lost in stories and words. But the books are gone. On January 16, Barnes & Noble, which owns B. Dalton, closed the store inside Laredo's Mall del Norte.

That leaves Laredo, Texas, population of 250,000, one of the largest cities in the United States without a bookstore. The closest bookstore is now 150 miles away, in San Antonio, Texas. "I was very shocked and I think it's very sad," Zhuara said. "I love reading. I adore reading."

Zhuara and dozens of volunteers launched a grass-roots organization called "Laredo Reads." They've started a petition drive collecting signatures to show corporate book dealers that Laredo can support a bookstore. The death of the store has energized Zhuara. She leaves school and heads straight to the Laredo mall. She races around asking strangers to sign petition forms. She's collected nearly 1,000 signatures across the city.

"I seriously don't understand why people don't just like reading that much," she said as she walked briskly past the old store. "If you don't know how to read, you're not going to get very far in life."

...Laredo does have two public libraries with a catalog of more than 200,00 books. But library officials say they can't keep up with the demand for the most popular titles. Maria Soliz, manager of the Laredo Public Library, says she hopes to expand the library's collection and expects to see an increase in library card applications.

Soliz and others fear the loss of the city's bookstore will slow down efforts to improve Laredo's literacy rate. A 2003 study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 48 percent of the residents of Webb County, Texas -- home to Laredo -- lacked basic literacy skills.

Many say losing the bookstore threatens efforts to improve the city's literacy rate.

"A bookstore and what that means for kids to learn the value of literacy and to learn the value of loving books, that's just something you can't really put a value on," said Mora.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/22/laredo.books/